


Who he needs us to be

by Here_to_procrastinate



Series: If it had been worse [3]
Category: One Piece
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Post-Wano Arc (One Piece), Protective Roronoa Zoro, Slave Monkey D. Luffy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-19
Updated: 2020-12-19
Packaged: 2021-03-10 19:22:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,288
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28172358
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Here_to_procrastinate/pseuds/Here_to_procrastinate
Summary: Sanji and Zoro have a heart-to-heart about their captain. The swordsman might be better at emotions than Sanji thought.
Relationships: Monkey D. Luffy/Roronoa Zoro, Monkey D. Luffy/Trafalgar D. Water Law, Roronoa Zoro & Vinsmoke Sanji
Series: If it had been worse [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2044387
Comments: 10
Kudos: 128





	Who he needs us to be

**Author's Note:**

> You have to read the first part to understand this one. Not necessarily the second one but obviously I think you should read it ;D  
> Hope you enjoy!

Sanji inhaled the cigarette smoke deeply as he stared onto the shimmering ocean before him. He was on watch today which was fine by him; he couldn’t sleep anyway.

The last days had been weird. Everything was the same as always, but it also wasn’t. The cook knew that they had been protective of their captain all along but this… This was a whole new level.  
They had landed on a small island two days ago and every crew member had stared down any person that even came close to their captain.

You didn’t have to be a genius to see that Luffy didn’t like it one bit. The worst thing about it was that Sanji could see the others adapt slowly. Franky and Brook had been pretty level-headed about their captain’s past from the beginning, Nami-chan und Robin-chan were – obviously – perfect at everything they did and Usopp and Chopper might still be very emotional, but they _always_ were. The cook wasn’t. He should be able to support their captain and not make him feel more awkward.

Like the mosshead did. Zoro might have stood a little bit closer to Luffy the last few days but he was mostly acting the same. It obviously soothed their captain to see that nothing had changed between them. That Zoro still thought of him the same.

Sanji took another drag. He had smoked even more than normally in the past days.  
The man tried to concentrate on the sea in front of him to distract himself. It was calm today no sign of anything dangerous.  
Which was good as Nami-chan and Robin-chan wouldn’t wake up from their sleep. Maybe they would even meet some mermaids… this seemed like the right place for mermaids!

“Oi! Swirlybrow!”

The cook felt a headache coming as he turned around already knowing who he would see. That’s how it goes. Think about the devil and he appears.

“What.”

Zoro took two more steps until he stood at the railing beside the other man.

“Need to talk to you.”

Sanji waited but the swordsman didn’t seem to be in a hurry. The blonde smoked two more cigarettes before Zoro started talking.

“You have to stop.”

The cook stared baffled at the other man.

“Smoking?”

Zoro rolled his eyes.

“No. Stop walking on eggshells around Luffy.”

Sometimes the cook wondered if they were actually pretty similar. Same thoughts. Same time.  
But even though he knew Zoro was right he just huffed.

“You’re hurting him. You all are.”

“Did you talk to the other ones too?”

“No. I don’t expect them to be strong. But you should be.”

Sanji smirked.

“Did you suddenly start believing in me?”

The swordsman frowned and looked away from the cook.

“Obviously not. But the captain does. I might think you’re an unnecessary weight on the deck of the Sunny but… Luffy needs you. So do your job.”

The blond man felt himself growing angry.

“Not everyone is as emotionless as you are, mosshead.”

Even while saying it Sanji knew that it was the wrong thing to say. Zoro still didn’t look at the cook; he just kept staring at the sea.

“You actually think that?”

No, Sanji thought but he said nothing. There wasn’t any harshness in the swordsman’s words as he started talking again.

“Luffy is everything to me. I would die for him. I _wanted_ to die for him at Thriller Bark. I _wanted_ to swim across the ocean as I heard about Ace. Even thinking about people hurting him when he was a child makes me… want to scream. It makes me want to cut down every person that ever touched him. It makes me want to take down the government all by myself. But. I can’t fight Luffy’s past. What happened, happened. I can’t go back in time. You can’t go back. The only thing we can do is be who our captain needs us to be.”

The hum of the sea was the only thing to be heard in the next minutes. Sanji lit his next cigarette.

“You weren’t there. You weren’t there at Whole cake island. I was awful. I hit him and he didn’t fight back. I told him what a low life he is. I dreamt about it all the time. I still do. But now there are other people beside me. Marines and Celestial Dragons. And Luffy gets younger with every second of the dream.”

“So, you pity yourself. You pity yourself and that’s why you can’t be a good crew mate. But this is not about you.”

Sanji closed his eyes. He felt awful. 

“Don’t get me wrong I haven’t forgiven you for what you did at Whole Cake Island. Just as I haven’t forgiven Usopp for what he did at Water 7. Whatever your reasoning was: You hurt Luffy. But this is not the time to regret or feel bad for yourself. Get over it.”

The cook felt his hands shake as he fumbled with his lighter. The sea was still calm; completely unaffected by the heated words.  
Zoro’s eyes softened slightly.

“I know you can do it. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be so hard on you.”

Sanji chuckled.

“Maybe I’m not as strong as you think.”

“Obviously you are. You are the cook of the Pirate King.”

The silence that followed was pleasant. 

“It scares me”, Sanji stated.

“Hm?”

“That he didin’t tell us everything. Everything he said was already awful, but he still left things out.”

Zoro didn’t answer.

“And what scares me even more is that I’m not sure if I could handle knowing more.”

There was still no sound from the other man.

“The second man. Luffy didn’t want to talk about what happened.”

“You think too much. That’s not ours to know. Luffy will tell us if he wants us to know.”

Even though there wasn’t a drop of emotion in the swordman’s words Sanji could see his own emotions mirrored on the other man’s face.  
After lighting his next cigarette, the cook started talking again.

“What do you think of Trafalgar?”

The blond man didn’t know why he wanted to keep the conversation running. He didn’t like the mosshead but his presence calmed him.  
Sanji had expected Zoro to start smirking at that question but his expression was indifferent.

“What do you mean?”

The cook raised an eyebrow.

“Are you really that dense? Trafalgar likes our captain a little more than you would like a normal ally.”

“Hm. If you say so.”

“…you don’t want to argue with me about something that you didn’t notice before me?”

The swordsman gave Sanji an annoyed look.

“No. I don’t want to. Luffy can do whatever he wants to do.”

“I think he’s the only one beside you that hasn’t noticed anything.”

At that Zoro started smiling a little. But it was a sad smile.

“No. He really doesn’t notice things like that, huh?”

Watching the other man, Sanji understood. No wonder Zoro showed no appreciation for the wonder that women were.  
The swordsman glanced hesitantly at the cook. He seemed to realise that he had said too much.

“…if you ever tell anyone I’ll have to kill you. And that would make Luffy sad.”

“Don’t worry. I’m not interested in talking about you more than I have to.”

The green haired man coughed before turning to go back to the sleeping quarters.

“So. Don’t forget what I said. Start being your annoying pervy self again around the captain.”

The cook smirked.

“Did that talk use up all your emotions for the next three years?”

“…like you said I’m emotionless.”

“Shouldn’t have said that.”

For the first time that night Zoro gave Sanji a real smile.

“Don’t worry about it.”

**Author's Note:**

> I realised that this whole series might just be different people talking about Luffy. I already know what I want the fourth part to be about aaaand... suprise: it will be a talk about Luffy. I just love him so much. And I want other people to love him. No matter how :D
> 
> If you like the series please leave a kudo and maybe a comment <3
> 
> Also: Read my other one piece fanfictions ;D  
> I'm running from university stuff I should do; so I write way too much at the moment :'D


End file.
